Just One Reminder

Fifty years ago this month, I find myself sobbing beside a swift-flowing river in the middle of the night. The sobs come from a sorrow so acute, it cuts the center of my stomach. I want to find my father, but I do not know where he has gone. 

He died without warning, and everything I knew to be the case, ceased to be the case. I think about chasing after him, without even knowing what that means. I take another step closer to the riverbank. I mean to throw myself in the water, where I reckon I will be drowned and eaten.

Will the chase be rewarded? I look into the dark sky and try to use it to sample the darkness imagined for death. I squeeze my eyes shut. I stop and think about what I was thinking before I stopped thinking. I have a gentle change of heart, and begin to reason with the darkness.

"What if," I ask the darkness, "instead of drowning in the river, I find some way to fix this so nobody else ever has to feel the way I am feeling right now?"

Ordinarily, it doesn't do any good to discuss one's innermost experiences. There is always the suspicion you are attempting to fascinate, or impress. People have various and sundry spiritual experiences of every variety and stripe. We cannot say one is more or less valid than another. They are as they are. With your patience, this is one of my own experiences. 

Grief makes the mind dance to dirge: a ballet on the knees. My legs were falling out from under me. Across the river, the darkness became like a small ball of light. This light grew gradually larger, until I saw it was emanating from a glowing person. One by one, I could see the various insects, birds, and animals step forward toward this person, and as they entered what was now a large sphere of light, they began glowing the same way. I even saw creatures come up from the river, and like a miracle, I saw them enter this light, taking on the same glow. For a moment, I thought it must be St. Francis, owing to the remarkably sudden collection of all sorts of beings, and their transformation as they entered the sphere.

Not long after,  I left home in response to that vision, seeking someone in particular. I was searching through the streets of a faraway city, and saw the above image through a window. It was a picture of the person beside the river!  Later that same afternoon, and through the medium of this image, I met the unmistaken one I set out to find. The living chase is rewarded in ways the death chase cannot find.

If you ever find yourself reasoning with darkness along this river of sorrow that flows through our lives, imagine all of the tears ever been cried for the reason you're crying now, and then live for the tears still to come. Shine through those tears; heal it all, with a simple thought of others who have suffered, or who will suffer, as you are suffering now. 

Sometimes, all it takes is just one reminder.

EXCLUSIVE: Karmapa's Return to Rumtek

Sensitively-placed American government advisors and employees close to the matter are reporting, "... a bright, green light," for the Seventeenth Karmapa's return to Rumtek. His Holiness is presently in the United States, and was just warmly received at Stanford University (above).

In an after-hours meeting proximate to Stanford's Hoover Institution, a top analyst who asked not to be named, explained the situation in this way:

"As far as the American government is concerned? We love this Karmapa, but we couldn't show it before now. We had an institutional duty, you could say it was an inherited obligation, to respect the Indian intelligence community's expressed wishes. You had Sharmapa managing relations with the Indian intelligence community as the legacy of the Sixteenth Karmapa. Everybody understood he held that portfolio. With Sharmapa's death, all of those old obligations are no longer an obstacle."

Asked, specifically, what impact this might have on the Karmapa's return to Rumtek, a source replied, "He has a bright, green light as far as we are concerned. We would prefer to see him there because it lends long-term stability. It would be difficult to start trouble on the Karmapa's doorstep, because this would be known all over the world in a matter of seconds. The Indians are smart enough to know what would make [the U.S. government] happy, so this is bound to happen."

The meeting referred to above was not attended by His Holiness, and took place after he left the campus.

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Controlled Experiment

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Limited opportunity.

Baying for An Apocalypse

It must have been a trifle for you to see through the games men play to deceive one another. Great, Irreplaceable Rinpoche, when it came to politics, you were nobody's fool. 

Here, now, with your words embedded in mind; here is another deception.

I am among the last of my generation to be raised by loving parents in a peaceful land, in a time before television. Among the last to have experienced a living history that is now being erased, and distorted. Free, clear, and independently able to recognize what turned out beneficial, and what turned out a pack of lies. I am patient. For the benefit of all sentient beings, I am of this world forever.

I read the books before they were burned. Saw the images before the very mediums themselves were destroyed. I walked the ground before walls went up. 

I lived long enough to look back at you, Rinpoche; to honestly and naturally experience the nature of your blessing, and protection. With fires and fences around us, we stayed together, and now they have evaporated into space. 

Wolves and crows came after you. They are like soldiers in dreams, destined to defeat as soon as they are born, capable of absolutely nothing. Let them rise as smoke from fires, let them momentarily perch upon fences. These pictures, too, shall perish.

Diamonds endure long enough to cut anything even as they dissolve; but, a dream? A dream is a far more dangerous thing, sharp and keen for fulfillment. It grows. It does not dissolve. 

A dream can cut the past, the present, and the future.

In the crazed projection of this world that lays open in front of me, resting upon my two hands, there is blood, there is order, there is treason, there is justice, there is no love song long enough to drain every last tear, there are all sorts of hopes, all sorts of reasons. I can see all the tiny lights in the small windows of all the little cities. They shine like flickering red candles on a peaceful village's altars, in the middle of a dark jungle night. 

Oh, Rinpoche, in our deep confusion we have even distorted light, and made it into a weapon. Elderly Father, we arrogantly jumped up to tame outside light, before light inside unburdened us. Certainly, there came infinitely deeper darkness.

In this dark projection at the edge of my fingers, war has come, is waging, and the ancient demons of our species arise like a burgeoning cloud of black dust. Beings torment one another with calculated cruelty. Fantasies become ruthless: people search for pleasure in pain. The relations between men and women are in complete disarray, families are normally broken, and children can no longer be children. Disruption is celebrated, and victims are encouraged to become even stronger abusers.

Grand Rinpoche, beings are once again in this world vowing destruction of the Dharma, whilst harming one another in a bloody dream in the middle of a desert. The ancient demons are baying for an apocalypse. The apocalypse they seek is the sum of all human fears. I call you now to help us dissipate this madness! 

When our own minds are so polluted, shall we liberate only those who go abroad in our delirium armed with rifle and sword?

Here, brought down by desire, anger, and delusion we face inside ourselves is this projection: this imagination, this stream, this outcome, this clear and immediate unfolding. Hear it crack like the ice beneath one who stands in the middle of the deepest lake. 

Here, arising like a curse of our being against all other beings, violence is rapidly unfolding as a solution to violence. Hear the cannon: indeed, they are weapons old as cutlasses. 

Death now falls out of silence swift as disease, from any direction of the sky. We no longer aim lead. We aim fire, light, sound, and somatic disorder. We aim invisible torment at societies, groups, and individuals. Our triggers are thousands of leagues from the barrels of our guns. 

Rinpoche, like a mad child's imagination from rocket comic books, we kill one another from more than eleven miles in the sky. Oh, Master of Physicians, this fever is tempestuous! These wars are terrible! Can you please help us quell these insane delusions?

You have personally looked upon others and me with kindness in numerous lifetimes, under circumstances we understand are significant. Across lifetimes, you have continuously appeared for the benefit of beings. You have planted countless seeds in the hearts of countless beings, those seeds have been nurtured, and they have grown. I am as bound to you as a child to creation - separation is no longer possible, and in this I rejoice and take great comfort. There is no more urgency to be immortal, no more reason to feel loss. I can stay here, endlessly and effortlessly, with you, and imitate doing what is done.

So arises the love, and the obligation to beg the giver of one's vows for surcease of the appearance of war and disorder as it arises. May the constant call for an apocalyptic resolution in the name of ancient demons be met with swift self-recognition of it's own true character by those who utter such calls.

May the calls for peace be met with immediate peace!

Astrology for Tibetan New Year 2015 (Extended)

The lunar year 2015 into 2016 is the Year of the Wood Sheep (shing-lug lo).  In Tibetan, Chinese, and Vietnamese practice, this lunar year commences on February 19, 2015.

The chief value of the following post lies in the calculations. Ordinarily, these calculations are the result of a laborious process, but here you have them at your fingertips, already done for you. Please take note: as a general rule, astrological indications are rendered highly flexible by Dharma practice. Astrological calculations, as distinct from indications, are a medium of expression similar to mathematics.

I gave what I regard as a suitable explanation and introduction to the detailed nuances of yearly astrology, and the relative meanings, in our remarks for 2009. Rather than repeat myself, I would suggest that you click back to 2009, read the post, and then click back here to discover what has changed. 

Be all that as it may, let us begin with the geomantic indicators. This year, the opportune passageway is  observed at West White (2) and North Blue (1), and here are the positions occupied by our sa-bdag friends, from rje-blon nyer-drug ma-bu 'khor:

1) King The-se - Southwest (also hidden spirit Ba-dan)

2) Queen Hang-ne - Southwest

3) Queen Mother The-khyem - South

4) Crown Prince Te-so - South

5) Royal Minister Tsang-kun - East

6) Royal Astrologer Se-ba bla-mkhyen - Northeast  (also inner at East, secretly at Southeast)

7) Royal Dog Walker Hang-phan ser-po bya-ra-ba - Southwest

8) Royal Treasurer Se-byi - Northeast

9) Royal Bodyguard-Assassin Se-shar - Northwest

10) Royal Horse Se-ba rang-rta - East

11) Royal Groom Se'u rta-khrid - East

12) Royal Timekeeper Se-bya - South

13) Royal Upholsterer Sa-bdag se-bu gdan-'ding - Southwest

14) Royal Policeman Se-lo sa-'chag kungs-myul - Northwest

15) Royal Sweeper Se-lo sa-'phyag - Northwest

16) Royal Dog Hal-khyi nag-po - West

17) Princess dKar-sham - West

18) Prince sBal-te (her husband - the royal son-in-law) - West

19) General Vang-ging dmarpo - South

20) General Tsang-kun - Southwest

21) Adjutant Tsang-kun 'phye'o - Southeast

22) Dog-headed Assistant Tsang-kun khyi-mgo - Southeast

23) Advisor Bla-mkhyen phe'u - Northeast

24) Scorpion-head Zin 'phung - North

25) Venomous Pi-ling - East

26) Chief of the Eleven Ministers of the King (symbolizing them) - West

The containing note for 2015 is gold in the mine (alternatively, "gold ore"). The body element (lus: iron -- symbolized by iron ore) originates from the turtle's skeleton. The other basics of the year are its srog, or vitality (earth); the dbang-thang, or destiny (wood); the rlung-ta, or luck (fire), and the khyams-nyid, or actual luck (fire). To get a bit more technical, the zla-klung-gi gza'gnyis are Moon and Iron Bird, and the destiny/vitality relationship is 'dun-khur. If you are business minded, you will want to watch mining, metals, and allied industries. Great wealth will be accumulated (and lost) in this most fortunate year for precious metals.

Our magic numbers this year are skye-me, or natal, as White 8 - associated with the element Metal, "Mirror of the Country God" (upper metreng); srog-sme, or vitality, as Red 9 - associated with the element Fire, "Mirror of Prosperity") (middle metreng); dbang-sme, or destiny, as Blue 3 - associated with the element Water, "Mirror of Ocean Medicine") (lower metreng). These are color cues for what promises to be a massive year for all aspects of the fashion industry. Color magicians, take special note.

Because I favor elemental astrology, it is difficult for me to make general predictions about how the various "animals" will fare in this Year of the Wood Sheep. Anyone who tells you they can is deceiving you. For example: there is a traditional notion that the Ox may experience challenges this year. You will see statements like this everywhere, but you cannot always accept them as valid. The Ox people have nothing to fear from this Sheep Year.

Why is this? 

There are twelve animals and five elements, for a total of sixty possibilities. Each of these sixty possibilities must be evaluated in terms of five elements, for a total of 300 possibilities. Each of these 300 possibilities has five possibilities, for a total of 1,500 possibilities. Therefore, anybody who says, "Oh, the Mouse will be lucky this year," is engaging in crass generalization. What they should be saying is "Oh, the Fire Mouse exhibits the following five relationships in this, the year of the Wood Sheep."

Some astrologers do not care for Sheep years. This is due to Chinese cultural idiosyncrasy regarding birth years. Under this system of belief, those born in the Sheep years are "too timid" to take on the world's misfortunes. In the case of a Wood Sheep, nothing could be farther from the truth. 

What shall I say about Sheep? Born artists. High lamas. Bold inventors. What else shall I say? Bill Gates is a Wood Sheep. Steve Jobs was a Wood Sheep. So much for "too timid."

The folk astrology of both China and Tibet indicates that Sheep in general are artistic, spiritual, wealthy, trustworthy, charming, and brave. Very good with parents, friends, and society at large. Excellent diplomats. Think of people born in 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, or 2003. On the negative side, they can be given to argument, resistance, envy, and a certain tendency to vengefulness. They tend to crave riches, and the trappings of wealth, to support their social fluency. Their ideal careers are found in the arts, government and politics (emphasis on intelligence community), and the world of religion. In business, they are suited to the arts and entertainment industries, to high technology, creative thinking, and positions requiring trust and confidence. The ideal companions are those born in the year of the Rabbit, or Pig. They will wish to avoid significant relationships with the Ox, Dog, Dragon, Bird, or Snake.

In particular, Wood Sheep are considered patient, and reliable, with a generous nature. They are noted for extreme intelligence, and clarity of thought, often to the level of genius. Although they will only face three major obstacles in their lives, these will be easily overcome.  Their average lifespan is sixty years. If you are a Sheep, and you are 60 or over, really watch your diet, medication, and exercise. Food and drink, as well as impulsiveness, are your enemy.

This is a year of wealth. The manner in which great wealth generates is not pleasant to consider. Adequate wealth is a different matter entirely.

The last Wood Sheep year, 1955, saw a world in turmoil: a world much like the one appearing before us now... To a certain extent, this became possible because of similar factors: a massive restructuring of wealth, in the particular case, occasioned by world economic restructuring during the decade following the World War of 1939-1945, and in our case by the almost complete centralization of wealth. In 1955, there was no shortage of wars, weapons, riots, and outrages. There was no shortage of rebellion, and break-away states. The year 2015 will witness the same cruel basics of gold, guns, and greed. Gamblers will rise and fall. If you really want to buy a self-sustaining place in the country, now is the year to act on your dream. If you want to embrace a nomadic lifestyle, then sell the place in the country, and lay hands on a fine means of transporting your own shelter. However you wish to live, that is how you should live, but be serious: get out of the city. Learn to work with your mind for money, and labor only for love of others. In the midst of world turmoil, embrace contentment.

[a work in progress]

As a personal aside, thank you for continued support of Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar through our own challenges during years gone by.

Keywords: Tibetan New Year, Year of the Sheep, Chinese New Year, Tibetan Astrology 2015, Losar, Wood Sheep, Asian Astrology, Chinese Astrology 2015, Astrology, Sheep, 2012, Lunar New Year, Sheep Year, Goat, Ram.

Manjushri Has Blessed America

This form of Manjushri has blessed the
wild technological age.
We could usefully consider this the
Great Freedom of Speech and the Internet Manjushri.

Different resolution.
Everybody is so busy seeing him/her/maybe
nobody can see him/her/surely.

This form of Manjushri has the quality of
liberation upon sight over pixels of light.

Where such things are possible
all things are false.

Here She Comes

How are you ewe?

Old Days

With the old Kalu Rinpoche in the Pasadena Hills. They were lighting for what became a famous photograph, by a then-unknown but subsequently celebrated photographer. I was asked to do a sit-in, on a very rich day. In my sit-in photo (below) I am looking straight at Rinpoche. When he sat down for his portrait (above) he was looking straight at me.

I once took him, the current Kalu Rinpoche's father, and mother, together with my own attendant and driver, from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

He wanted to bless all the animals between those two places.

That was not his sole intention. 

It certainly formed part of his intention.

My intention is that all the old negativity be swept away.

Indeed, that was then, and this is now.

Both equally a spacious illusion.

The CIA and Magic.

In 1977, while conducting research into the history of magic's use as a weapon of state, the Central Intelligence Agency granted my request, and released to the open literature, a technical report entitled "Magic and how to recognize it."

This document was thereafter furnished to anyone who asked, utterly free of any cost. All of these things are very easy for anyone to see, if they know where to look. If that particular document is light available, I would like to see what it looks like now.

Meanwhile, I recall so many conclusions of that report as I watch world events unfold.

"As witch doctors are known to be interested in gossip, people tell them gossip."

We are hearing a wild echo of human speech, in all its aspects, as the destruction of speech by social media explodes.

"[M]agic will almost invariably be found associated with situations of tension and anxiety."

What a blessing to hear only beautiful sounds?

When can we stop digital drumming for magicians?

Mercy for the Wicked

To the King Magician Who Guards Islam:

No Buddhist has ever harmed a single thing that is Allah's.

If it has been said that a Buddhist 

has caused harm to a single thing that is Allah's, 

that person is not a Buddhist, 

and that thing is not Allah's. 

Since there is no thing that is not Allah's, 

you take the matter as granted before I speak, 

and nod sternly in agreement to hear truth promptly told.

May this incline Your Majesty's indulgence.

Allah's word can never be profaned by false words, 

because Allah's word is absolutely pure.

Nothing improves purity:

It is here that everyone agrees.

Purity requires no defense.

Oh, Eternally Patient and Merciful 

Judge Who Protects Islam:

We, on the other hand, are here to defend 

a magical apparition of some sort 

-- now brought to the Court's notice as Ashin Wirathu --

before you give your ruling, 

and we both permit his fears to continue 

to their inevitable conclusion.

We have great respect for the Court's earnest person 

which we now express through a similarly earnest wish for 

your long and glorious presence at a moment in mind 

where space is understood as something other than space, 

and time is Allah's very own servant.

Over the course of time and experience, 

men see Allah's face in the faces of all beings. 

To recognize his own face, a man must look into a mysterious mirror.

Had I not come to understand my own face, 

how might I otherwise have reason to see Allah's face in yours?

The Plea

At this time, we waive reading of the charges, enter a plea of Not Guilty, 

and beg for the simple courtesy of house arrest, while we conduct forensic examination

of benefit to all circumstances hereinafter arising within the scope of this matter.
The defense has engaged extensive investigative support to speed things along.

Defendant is in fact burdened by time, 

so in no event can the Defense burden the Court's time,

Nor do we expect less than the Court's own sense of timely justice.

If the Crown Prosecutor permits, kindly help the Defense accomplish mens rea?

If the Crown Prosecution finds it helpful, we will plead right now over what we find on the issue of intention versus what actually happens.

Theory of the Defense

No crime violated. Over and out to the airport.

If Ashin Wirathu is a thief, he is a master thief.
We do not find anything missing.
A master thief occupies himself thus:

1) He breaks into houses,
2) Plunders wealth,
3) Commits banditry,
4) Ambushes highways.

He requires these five:

1) The uneven,
2) Thickets
3) Powerful people
4) He offers bribes,
5) He moves alone.

There are other elements, but kindly agree:
A master thief, like an evil monk, lives alone.
If Wirathu has sought to steal from a crowd
We take confidence he is no thief.

If Ashin Wirathu is a liar, he is a master liar.
We cannot find a single word he says is true.

When questions are asked
the lie is already formed before
the answer is even given.

If there be one word as a lie
Then all words are lies from the beginning.

As the liar only profits from true lies
why would a liar brand truth as lies
and lies as truth?

Allah knows all of man's sounds are false
and only Allah's sounds are true:
Man knows all of Allah's sounds are true
and only man's sounds are false

This is the instruction on the echo defense.

Ashin Wiraphu is suffering from symptoms of so-called dementia.
Allah uses those thus called to serve as Allah's guardians
for they are beyond any lies.
As Buddha's guardians anticipate the same circumstances,
So, too, do these guardians use those the same so-blessed,
for they are beyond lies.

Ah, yes... then.

This will require daylight on magic.


[pause]

Mens Rea

What is the intent of this apparitional speech?



In honor of the great Alan M. May, I have come to hell to help a Jewish lawyer argue a defense for a Buddhist in an Islamic Courthouse. He once engaged me to investigate a ghost. 

Sky Blue Manjushri

My mother had a vision of this deity before I was born. I have struggled to find this practice for many years. Perhaps it is lost. Perhaps it is only waiting for my absolutely polite silence, and complete attention.

Tribute to A Great Magician

This is the new King of Saud. Until yesterday, he was head of the Royal Saud Intelligence Service. He is also the greatest practitioner of Islamic King Magic on the face of the earth.

In tribute, a Buddhist magician's apprentice in Asia, just offered all of the Golden Triangle's opium and gold to the Golden Crescent.

He also offered up the entire Buddhist religion.

They say one of these men has dementia, and the other is demented. Nothing could be more untrue. All over the planet, magicians are singing, in an attempt to stop the bloodshed arising from religious speech.

Let no Buddhist, anywhere on this planet, harm a Muslim.

Not even in magic dreams.

Brief Silence

We are all hearing terrible screaming, because we are all screaming terribly.

The illusion of speech, under control of magicians.

Frequency echo in reverb under compression.

One cannot drown out the illusion.

One can, however, stop screaming.

By the illusion of silence is the illusion of screaming pacified.

The echo stops.

What remains is all sound.

I am Ashin Wirathu

Before the Triple Gem, With the Authority of Space:

In a fresh dream,
picked up and put down twice
the white dakini removed the binding
from my mouth with medicinal balm.

I did not interpret this as her invitation to comment.
I understood this as a command for confession!

This is the face of a sly magician.
Throughout future history,
Let it be associated with Tenpa Rinpoche,
For I am Ashin Wirathu,
In the three times.

I light a fire to feel the warmth
of my burning afflictions
as it is a very cold day in Hell
and I come again to comfort the King.

It is a wild ministration
if one obtains cold from heat
but that is precisely what happens
When a healer breaks a fever.

Screaming and fighting
with dakinis, using poisons
to obtain relief, this is
contrary in its own way.

Upon what do results in all cases depend?
I take Ashin Wirathu's sins
and give them my name,
For I am the same magician.

The Elaborate Speech Offering

A work of Buddhist magic operates in the three times, then evaporates. 

It can seem quite real.

"The Elaborate Speech Offering" is one such work of Buddhist magic.

With all respect to world opinion, this is not the face of Buddhist terror.

This is the sound of Buddhist magicians singing.

Ashoka Mukpo Contracts Ebola

Numerous sources are reporting that Ashoka Mukpo, son of the late Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's widow, and himself an enthroned tulku, has contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia, and is being evacuated to the United States for treatment at this time.

Working on humanitarian issues in West Africa for some years now, Mukpo was recently employed as a freelance cameraman. Symptoms reportedly appeared just after his return to Liberia with a broadcast journalist from the NBC news organization.

Please pray for the complete recovery of this precious being.

Hong Kong, October, 2014

All Things Are Impermanent

"Our life is unsteady like an autumn cloud;
Our body is like a water bubble, without any essence;
What has been put together and piled up is like a dream or a magic show."
--The Swan

In God's Name

Rest assured, there is no nudity in the following photographs. No exposed nipples, no unseemly kissing on Main Street. These photographs are of current events. These are photographs of something happening now. This is 2014. Let the whole world see what is being done in the name of the "one true God."